Open A Meal on the Beach

[Lilah]

DATE 5 Summer 513AV

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Lilah sat back on the sand fishing pole stuck in the ground next to her, waiting for a fish to bite. She had shed the majority of her clothes to let the sun kiss her skin. She laid on the sand and sifted it through her fingers. Her eyes closed, she could only see the red from her eyelids. She listened carefully to the ocean song, the waves rolling onto the beach and a soft breeze running through the trees. A smile crossed her face, enjoying being able to relax and do nothing.

Her ears perked up when she heard a her fishing pole give a little creak like it was being pulled. Lilah sat up and grabbed a hold of her fishing pole. She braced the bottom of the pole between legs while she pulled back and reeled in a fish. It wasn’t a very large fish, but she was satisfied with her catch. She stuck the pole in the ground again with the fish still hanging from the hook. She stood up and holding her hand over her eyes, she glanced around the beach, looking for some drift wood. She spotted a few scraps of wood a few feet away. She stepped lightly across the sand to gather the wood.

Lilah picked up the scraps of wood, happy they were dry. She held the wood up to her nose and breathed in the saltly wood. With a smile she turned back around to see a seagull picking at her hanging fist.

“Hey!” she yelled. “That’s not your fish!”

She ran over to the fishing pole, trying to waive the seagull away. She waved one of the scraps of wood around. The seagull was frightened by the movements, but not enough to not pull the fish off the hook and fly away with it. With an angry huff, she threw the pieces of wood on sand. She cursed angrily to the sky.

[Jack Benefort]

It was a nice, warm, sunny day in Riverfall, and Jack was decided on spending it on the beach. It was a decision partially made of boredom, and partially made of a desire to get something done. Boredom, because at the moment he was not yet employed anywhere. To get something done because the night he had spent teaching the Isur and Kelvic to swim had proven to him what he dreaded at the time: He was not a good swimmer anymore. He remembered the days when he was like a fish in the water, back when he was a young child. But it did not last. Training, study, and travel prevented any continued practice of swimming skill. But now he was free to have a little fun and do as he chose. So, as the sun rose over Riverfall in the early morning, he went down to the beach, disrobed and went for a swim.

He gradually waded out into deeper and deeper water, until he eventually found a dip in the seabed that was shallow enough to keep his head above water when standing, but definitely deep enough for some good swimming practice. After taking a moment to get acclimated to the water and its depth, as well as checking as best he could for any dangers in the area, he pushed off of the bed, and allowed his body to float on the surface of the water. He outstretched his arms and legs, and did his best to simply float there. This took a few tries to get just right, as he found that, though a buoyant thing, had a tendency to move at the wrong times, which threw him off and made him sink. He made a mental note of this, to work on it more in the future. He then did his best to actually swim for a short while, though it ended up being a pretty gruesome affair, as he was getting the movements of his arms and feet quite wrong. Eventually, he decided it was time to be done swimming- he would practice more another time, and let what he had focused on today sink in.

As he redressed himself, he overheard a young woman yelling about a gull stealing her fish, and cursing rather loudly. He chuckled at the sound, recalling times he had himself been in the same position. Such was life. But perhaps he would pay a visit to this fellow traveler. After all, it wasn't like making friendly with strangers in new places had ever panned out badly for anyone. So, now being fully clothed, he walked briskly down the beach to the place the yelling had started from, and found her standing there, looking up at the sky, undoubtedly still considering throwing one more swear at the gull. As he walked closer, getting close to her little set up with her fishing pole, he could tell she was a Svefra. It was strange to see one of them alone, though if it were going to happen a place like Riverfall is where it would be. He weighed the situation for a few moments, trying to decide whether or not he really wanted to start something with yet another stranger. But then he was reminded by himself of his purpose in traveling Mizahar- it definitely wasn't to NOT do crazy things and meet new people.

So he slowly strode forward, putting his right hand over his eyes to shield himself from the sun. "Gulls, eh?" He called out, hoping to bring some levity to the situation. "Real vagik's they are, aren't they? Used to rob us of good fish all the time back in Zeltiva. 'Course there we had the University, always a mage around to take a shot at them." He said that last bit with a smirk and a chuckle. He had never seen a mage actually kill a gull, but it was a common enough story among the more gossipy sailors, and the very mental image seemed humorous to him. He hoped he could spread a bit of good humor to her as well, before she got too upset over the loss.

[Lilah]

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When Lilah had stopped cursing the sky and the seagull, she heard a voice call out to her. She turned to see a man walking towards her. "Gulls, eh? Real vagik's they are, aren't they? Used to rob us of good fish all the time back in Zeltiva. 'Course there we had the University, always a mage around to take a shot at them," he said.

Lilah smiled at the notion, though surprised to see another person out on the beach with her. She had thought she was the only one around, happy for the company though. "I would certainly like to see a mage take down a gull. It would certainly make me feel a lot better after having my lunch snatched up from me," she responded.

She turned slightly from the man, pulling up the fishing pole, casting it to the ocean, and sticking it back into the ground again. With a frown, she gazed out to the ocean, hoping she wouldn't have to wait very long for another bite. "I'd offer you a bite to eat, but as you saw, that gull had a very different idea when it came to my meal."

[Jack Benefort]

Jack was pleased and smiled when the woman chuckled at his joke, and went on to state that she would have fed him if she could. He hadn't completely expected to find a Svefra that was away from her pod be so friendly to a land-dweller like himself. As he continued to walk closer, he examined her to see if he could determine her pod. He had met a few Svefra in Zeltiva, and several on his trip from Syliras to Riverfall, while he passed along the Suvan, but he did not see a tattoo that he recognized on her, though he noticed a large tattoo of a dolphin on her chest, which he assumed was probably her pod's symbol. So, counting that as her pod, she seemed to him like every other Svefra he'd met up to this point.

Jack realized after a moment that he needed to think of something to say, as it would seem shady to just approach a young woman with humor like that and suddenly turn silent. He shuddered at the thought of just being perceived as someone with such ill intent, even more so with the laws in Riverfall that applied to people who committed any sort of crimes against women. Jack did not fancy himself a very big fan of being imprisoned or executed, so he simply blurted out the first thing he could think of to say.

"So, uh.... Your tattoo there. Is that your pod tattoo? What pod are you from? And what brings you here, away from them?"

He was fully aware that he probably sounded like a blathering idiot, so suddenly switching from casual humor to throwing out such random questions like that. But he had moments like these every now and again, where he was no longer smooth or articulate and lost all ability to use his brain and his mouth. It would pass, like it always had before.

'I guess it's just a good reminder that I'm only human.' He thought to himself.